Masochism Tango
by Seraina
Summary: "Bash in my brain, and make me scream with pain. Then kick me once again and say we'll never part. I know too well, I'm underneath your spell so darling if you smell something burning it's my heart"- The Masochism Tango, by Tom Lehrer. Azula is forced to visit Ozai to get information for Zuko. Dark one-shot.


"My daughter, you look tired."

He used to tell her that after her training. If she admitted to being tired, he would force her to train longer. If she lied and he could tell, she would be punished. So she learned to lie better and sleep less.

"The beds at the nuthouse aren't even worthy for a water peasant's chicken-hog to sleep on. I'm sure it is a new form of torture they are trying on me. I won't let her win though."

These visits have been going on for days now. Every morning since Zuko returned from the Earth Kingdom, he had her removed from the asylum and brought to the prison to converse with their father. It was pointless though. Ozai does not know where _She_ is. Nor does he care to help his traitorous son.

"Who aren't you letting win?" Ozai leaned forward, pressing his face against the bars of his cell.

Azula tensed as much as she could be while chi blocked and restrained. She had slipped and now he knew of Her. She never knew if they were working together, though it would make sense if they were. _She_ had pushed him to make the little princess into a monster. It was, after all, Ursa's poison that put her husband on the throne.

Perhaps he is tired of being her pawn as well.

"Mother," she spits with distaste. "She's turned everyone against me. I'm sure she even got to you too, but now you are here. I'm sure you are useless to her now."

Ozai's face remains passive, but he leaned closer to the bars of his cell. She can almost see the fire burn behind his eyes again. She imagines him sending flames and lightning at her, his hot hands searing into the flesh of her thighs.

"Do you want to be rid of her, my beautiful daughter?" His hand shoots out from between the bars and pulls her wheelchair closer.

Azula scoots forward on the chair and slips down, landing on her knees in front of her father. "She has turned my own mind against me. Professing her love for me and then taking away everyone that matters."

Ozai grabbed the straps of her straightjacket and pulled his daughter towards him. He cannot undo her restraints, but he holds her as close as he can. She curls into his touch, craving contact of any kind.

"My dear, daughter. You are so clever and wise to uncover the true nature of Ursa's treachery. We do not have much time."

The former Fire Lord pulls Azula painfully against the bars, holding her with one arm as he whispers in her ear. She leans against the bars, closing her eyes as he slips his fingers down her pants. He tells her how right she is. Everything that happened was Ursa's doing.

Azula doesn't even cry out when he pushes into her. Years ago she learned to be quiet. The restraints and the cage make it a little more difficult, but it can be done. She's too weak from the chi blocking to move with him, but neither of them cares.

"My beautiful daughter. You could have been Fire Lord, had she not interfered." His voice worms its way in her ear and buzzes around her brain.

"She came to me on my coronation day."

Ozai is not surprised his daughter broke. He honed her to a sharp edge, then used her like a club. She shattered, but she was still just as deadly. He kissed her forehead as she tightened around him. Her face was vacant, as it usually was when he showed his love for her. She was just incapable of returning his affection. She was never good with such emotions and that was why his wife thought she was a monster. Anger and arrogance were easy to fake when you feel nothing.

Azula didn't know that it was wrong. Father never touched Zuko. Ever. Just like Ursa never touched her. It was how things had always been. Zuko didn't get it. And he never listened to her when she tried to set him straight.

"Find the letters, Azula. They will lead you to your Mother. And then you can end her and take your life back." He ran his fingers through her greasy hair and kissed her temple though the bars.

Her eyes turned back to him and she smiled. "Thank you, Father."

_Take your cigarette from its holder  
>And burn your initials in my shoulder<br>Fracture my spine_

_And swear that you're mine  
>As we dance to the Masochism Tango<em>

_- The Masochism Tango, by Tom Lehrer Released on the album "More of Tom Lehrer" by Lehrer Publications in 1959_


End file.
